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La Salle University La Salle University Digital Commons Art Museum Exhibition Catalogues La Salle University Art Museum 11-1982 The aE rly Bibles of Philadelphia and Germantown La Salle University Art Museum Brother Daniel Burke FSC Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/exhibition_catalogues Part of the Fine Arts Commons, and the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation La Salle University Art Museum and Burke, Brother Daniel FSC, "The Early Bibles of Philadelphia and Germantown" (1982). Art Museum Exhibition Catalogues. 78. http://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/exhibition_catalogues/78 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the La Salle University Art Museum at La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Art Museum Exhibition Catalogues by an authorized administrator of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Early Bibles Of Philadelphia And Germantown The Susan Dunleavy Collection of Biblical Literature La Salle College Art Gallery November 15, 1982 - February 20, 1933 The Early Bibles of Philadelphia and Germantown Aside from the extraordinary Indian Bible of John Eliot in the seven­ teenth century, the early history of the Bible in America is centered in Philadelphia and Germantown. As a small tribute during the tricentennials of the city (1982) and the town (1983), La Salle is offering an exhibition of their many firsts: the first Bible printed in a foreign language (1743), the first children's Bible (1763), first New Testament in English (1777), first and only Bible printed under the patronage of Congress (1782), first Catholic bible history (1784), first Catholic Bible (1790), first of John Wesley's edition with notes (1791), first with American illustrators (1796), first from a "hot press" (1798), first Bible printed by a woman (1808), first Hebrew Bible (1814). These editions and others indeed make for an interesting historical record, especially when one considers the difficulties oar earliest printers had in getting type and other equipment, the scarcity and the generally poor quality of paper and ink available, and the strict prohibition of England, in an effort to protect its own monopoly, against printing English Bibles. Moreover, the early history of the Bible in America is replete with interesting characters-Christopher Saur, the first printer in Germantown, who agreed to print some pamphlets for the German iirmigrant comnunity and backed into printing their first Bible; his son Christopher, who printed the third edition of the sane Bible but saw most of the edition used for gun-wadding in the Battle of Germantown; Philadelphia printer Robert Aitken (his splendid portrait in the exhibition is by Charles Willson Peale, the major colonial painter from whose farm the La Salle campus is decended), who printed the New Testament less as a carrrerciai or devotional enterprise than as a revolutionary gesture to the mother- country; Benjamin Franklin who called for an update of the King James Version and translated the opening of Job rather freakishly to demonstrate what he had in mind: deist Thomas Jefferson who excerpted the New Testament for his private use in a manuscript that was later printed by the Govern­ ment; Joseph Cruikshank, a Quaker printer who published the first Catholic prayer-book in the Colonies and later the first Methodist Bible; Mathew Carey, Irish revolutionary who learned printing in Franklin's shop outside* Paris and came to Philadelphia to print the first Ca.tholic edition; Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress, who made the first English trans­ lation of the Septuagint and had it printed by Robert Aitken's daughter, Jane; the obscure Carl Cist, who had a printing house on 20th Street. Philadelphia was also the site of the first Bible Society (non­ commercial publishers) in America founded in 1808 with Bishop V/hite as its President. It was then called The Philadelphia. Bible Society, and continues today as The Pennsylvania Bible Society, 701 Walnut Street. The works exhibited here are a memorial and a celebration of American men and women who found strength and guidance in the Holy Scripture during trying times and who sought to bring its solace and inspiration to others in two major centers ox early American industry and culture. Br. Daniel Burke, Director K K CASE I I 1 2 Biblia Das ist Die Helige Das Neue Testament... I Schrift... Germantown: Christopher Saur, 1745 Germantown: Christopher Saur, 1743 This is the first edition of the I Christopher Saur (1694-1758) emigrated New Testament printed in German to Germantown, Pa. from his native in America, by Christopher Saur's Germany at thirty-one years of age. son, Christopher Saur II. [ Here he became a master of many trades and arts: clockmaker, glazier, book­ Rumball-Petre: 160 seller and printer. Although largely l self-taught in the latter trade, Saur Lent by The Historical Society founded a printing establishment in of Pennsylvania 1738 which became one of the largest of its time. He was a man of deep I religious conviction and his desire to fulfill the great need in his 3 community for a Bible led him to i print the first Bible in a European Die Helige Schrift... language in America (1,200 copies). Basing it on a non-orthodox Luther Germantown: Christopher Saur, l version, Saur tried to produce a (the younger), 1763 Bible which would satisfy the various conflicting German Protestant sects Upon Saur's death in 1758, his (Dunkards, Mennonites, Lutherans) son, Christopher Saur II, contin­ [ who settled in the Germantown area. ued his father's printing business The Bible also served the German at 5225 Germantown Avenue. In 1763 speaking people who settled in he issued a second quarto edition [ Lancaster and Lebanon counties of the Bible (2,000 copies). Tnis (Schwenkfelders, Moravians, Amish). edition has the distinction of being the first Bible printed on American i D & M: 4240 paper. Saur became self-sufficient in the bookmaking trade for in 1773 78-B-106 he built his own paper mill on the Schuylkill, obtained binding from [ his own bindery and made his own ink. l Rumbe11-Petre: 161 i 79-8-204 [ [ L 4 Chestnut Hill where he printed a weekly newspaper in German, Die Helige Scfarift... Die Chestnurhiller Wolchen- schrift, and many religious Germantown, Christopher Saur, 1777 publications. Christopher Saur II issued a third 82-B-459 (B) quarto edition in 1776, just as the Revolution began. Because he was dubious that the American cause would, succeed and, on o religious grounds, refused to take an oath of allegiance to Das Neue Testament... the new confederation of states, his property was confiscated. Fniladelphia: Carl Cist, 1791 Tradition has it that most of the unbound sheets of his Bible were Charles Cist, a Russian, and used as cartridge paper in the Melchior Steiner, a Swiss, Battle of Germantown, hence it established a printing press in came to be known as the "Gun- Philadelphia in 1776, where they wad Bible". It was the first published many works in German Bible set in American-made and English. Cist moved his type, cast in Saur's own business to Washington, D.C., foundry. when it became the nation's capital and remained there D & M: 4240 until his death in 1804. Runbell-Betre: 159 Not in D & M 78-B-106 Lent by Tne Lutheran Theological Seminary Library. Philadelphia 5 Das Kleine Davidische Psaltersplel Chestnut Hill: Printed, by Samuel Saur, 1791 Samuel Saur, the youngest of Christopher Saur II's sons con­ tinued in the printing business upon his father's death in 1704- He moved from Germantown to 7 8 Das Neue Testament... Psalmen Davids... Germantown: Michael Billmeyer. Gerrnantown: Michael Billmeyer, 1795 1799 Billmeyer and his father-in-law, 80-B-308 (3) Leibert, recorrrrenced the printing business in Germantown in 1794 after Christopher Saur II's property was confiscated. 'Ihe partnership ended in 1787 and, thereafter, the two men printed in separate shops in Germantown. Billmeyer became a prolific printer of the New Testament in German. He issued ten editions (seven of which are in La Salle's collection) between 1787-1822 to satisfy the great demand of the various German speaking people in Germantown, the Ephrata Cloister and other areas in Lancaster County. The paper for Bilimeyer's printing business was likely obtained from the first paper mill in the colonies, established in 1690, that of William Hitteahouse, located nearby along a branch of the Wiss ahi ckon Creek. O'Callahan: p. 50 80-B-308 (1) CASE II 9 10 The New Testament of Our Lord The Holy Bible and Saviour Jesus Christ: Containing the Old and New Newly Translated Out of the Testaments: Newly Translated Out Original Greek... of the Original Tongues... Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by R. Aitken, Printer and Bookseller, R. Aitken, at Pope's Head, Three Front Street. 1777. Doors Above the Coffee House, in Market Street. 1782. B o m in Scotland in 1734, Aitken came to Philadelphia in 1769 and The first complete edition of the began a business as a bookseller Authorized Version was issued with and later as a printer. During the seal of Pennsylvania on the the Revolution he became printer title-page and, on the second leaf, to the Congress and an interested the resolution of Congress of party to the deliberations of one September 12, 1782, approving the of its committees on ways to meet publication and recommending it to the rising demand for Bibles. the inhabitants of the United Since England had forbidden the States. The recommendation re­ printing of English Bibles in the flected the interest of Congress colonies and their export of in the work itself but also, Bibles was now cut off, the undoubtedly, its gratitude to Aitken Committee urged that 20,000 for his service during the war, copies be imported, at govern­ especially his removal to Baltimore ment expense, from Scotland and during the British occupation.

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